You’ll now see every process on your system, in the order in which they’re using memory. Browse down the list – are you running any background programs that you really don’t need? Turn them off if so. If you discover some memory hogs you don’t recognise, then enter their process names at Google to find out more.

If you really want to drill down into your PC’s activities, then there are two free Sysinternals tools that will prove invaluable.Autorunswill show you everything that loads when your Windows starts up, whileProcess Explorerdisplays running programs in great detail and shows you the resources they’re using. Go download them, they’re some of the best PC troubleshooting tools around.